Exploring the Impact of Code Style in Identifying Good Programmers

Re:Exploring the Impact of Code Style in Identifying Good Pr... by rigelbm on Saturday February 11, 2023 @05:37AM (#34751126)

I stopped at "Good Programmers". Seriously though, it would have been perfectly fine to phrase it as "Exploring the correlation between Code Style and Competitive Programming Performance". Everyone knows that competitive programming has constraints (e.g. small time limit, throwaway one-off deliverable, no collaboration) that favours a style of coding that you wouldn't normally find, for example, on a business setting.

It's not clear whether this paper was accepted at the conference, but if it was, it is a testament to the low bar of the examining board. I like to follow the "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything" mantra, but this paper deserves an exception.

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Re:Exploring the Impact of Code Style in Identifying Good Pr... by marginalia_nu on Saturday February 11, 2023 @06:55AM (#34751557)

You really should consider reading articles with a more generous mindset, not just stopping at the first ostensible flaw.

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Re:Exploring the Impact of Code Style in Identifying Good Pr... by password11 on Saturday February 11, 2023 @07:20AM (#34751708)

PP and myself didn't stop reading because the article was flawed. We stopped reading because the article turned out to be about a subject with little professional relevance that we don't care about. (And I say this as a former competitive programmer!)

In my professional opinion, competitive programming is to being a good programmer in industry as ballet is to being a good football player in the NFL.

Yes, they're tangentially related, and yes, NFL players do train ballet; but, if you put Baryshnikov out there against Ray Lewis he's going to get smacked.

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Re:Exploring the Impact of Code Style in Identifying Good Pr... by zopa on Saturday February 11, 2023 @07:20AM (#34751709)

You’re saying we should judge things on their substance as a whole, and not by superficial details?

Persuasive! I wonder if we could apply that insight to any other field of endeavor…

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Re:Exploring the Impact of Code Style in Identifying Good Pr... by moffkalast on Saturday February 11, 2023 @08:17AM (#34752085)

Nah, that would never work.

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Re:Exploring the Impact of Code Style in Identifying Good Pr... by sdf4j on Saturday February 11, 2023 @10:07AM (#34752955)

> You’re saying we should judge things on their substance as a whole, and not by superficial details?

This is literally the goal of the study. Judge programmers based on the superficial details of competitive programming results.

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Re:Exploring the Impact of Code Style in Identifying Good Pr... by z3t4 on Saturday February 11, 2023 @07:17AM (#34751690)

Next you will read a paper about something you are not an expert in and will think every word is fact and truth.

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Re:Exploring the Impact of Code Style in Identifying Good Pr... by phonescreen_man on Saturday February 11, 2023 @09:53AM (#34752779)

Everyone knows that competitive programming has constraints

I didn’t know! I’m part of everyone

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